Although they ultimately decided against it, the Greater Sudbury Police Service Board planned a closed-door meeting to “review questions” in advance of a public meeting in October 2023.
This, according to an email board administrator Matthew Gatien sent to the board at 11:36 a.m. on Oct. 27, 2023, in preparation for the Oct. 30 public board meeting, which was scheduled for members to discuss the police service’s proposed budgets for 2024-25.
Sudbury.com received this email as part of a collection obtained through a Freedom of Information (FOI) request for emailed correspondence between board members and GSPS staff in relation to the Oct. 30, 2023, public budget meeting.
Sudbury.com filed the FOI request earlier this year in response to what we perceived as a performative tone throughout the Oct. 30 board meeting. During that meeting, members repeatedly praised GSPS staff and asked supportive questions largely uncritical of budgetary requests, which included hiring 26 additional staff.
Given the way the meeting unfolded, Sudbury.com was curious if more fulsome discussions had been held behind closed doors prior to the meeting, hence the filing of the FOI request.
What we received back provided an interesting glimpse into the pre-meeting back-and-forth over a proposal to hold a closed-door meeting wherein it appears board members would receive training or coaching on how to respond to public questions about the significant budget hike.
The proposed GSPS increase — which was initially an 18-per-cent increase over two budget years and was finally pared down to a little less than 15 per cent — was a source of significant public discussion at the time and no small amount of criticism from some ratepayers who felt the notion of hiring 26 more police officers was too expensive and/or unnecessary.
Perhaps anticipating public pushback, the proposal was put forth to hold “training” behind closed doors to “review questions” with board members.
In Gatien's email to the board, he noted this closed-door meeting idea came out of a consultation with Chair Al Sizer and Deputy Chief Sara Cunningham.
However, the proposal to hold this training didn’t seem to sit well with Chief Paul Pedersen, who questioned the rationale behind the closed door meeting and pointed out that the proposed training seemed to fall outside the rules for closed-door meetings.
Responding to Gatien’s Oct. 27 email and CC’d to Sizer, Cunningham and Deputy Chief Natalie Hiltz, Pedersen argued against the closed meeting’s rationale.
“Training to review questions doesn’t sound at all like training to me,” Pedersen wrote in his response, which was partially redacted. “Training is all about learning, about teaching and about the need to train in private,” he added. “What specific training are they receiving about questions? Who is facilitating the training? How would we defend that on inspection?”
Further, Pedersen wondered if the proposed “training” was really more about “confidential strategy.”
“Are we going in-camera because we want to speak about confidential or legal matters? Perhaps confidentially, how we are going to deal with media questions, questions from the public and/or council? In other words, confidential strategy.”
Pedersen added that this “might not meet the test for the criteria to bring the public budget in-camera.”
In a follow-up email, Pedersen wrote, “I simply didn’t see the in-camera justification as training, since the Board has already received training on police budgets and the process.”
Later that afternoon, Sizer responded to Pedersen’s email, noting, “While I did agree to a closed meeting, I do appreciate your input and observations with this matter.”
Sizer later added, “Being open with these discussions in public is important.”
A closed-door session was ultimately agreed to prior to the Oct. 30 public meeting, at Pedersen’s suggestion, to cover certain budget-related matters which did fit the criteria.
The agenda for the Oct. 30 meeting does not indicate there was a closed session prior to that afternoon’s public budget meeting. As of this week, the meeting’s minutes had not been posted on the GSPS website.
However, Gatien confirmed to Sudbury.com that an in-camera meeting was held on Oct. 30, and that any public meeting with an in-camera session is clarified using the same written line in its minutes: “The Board will report any matters discussed during the In Camera meeting. The Board discussed and resolved confidential items pertaining to legal and personal matters.”
As such, it’s unclear what was discussed during the closed session.
The FOI request Sudbury.com filed earlier this year sought “all emailed correspondence to and from Greater Sudbury Police Service board members between themselves and/or GSPS staff regarding the Oct. 30, 2023, board meeting.”
GSPS charged $180 for the request, which included a total of 30 pages. The fee was $7.50 per page, and GSPS staff recorded the request as taking six hours to complete.
Three pages were withheld in their entirety, with staff citing Municipal Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act rationale for having done so, as the pages contained draft bylaws or something else allowed within a closed session.
There were two redactions, including an opening paragraph in an email from Pedersen to Gatien and the file name of an attachment Gatien sent in an email to a city staff member.
Following their prior meeting on Oct. 25, which Sudbury.com did not attend, GSPS staff declined interview requests and provided only cursory information regarding a proposed 10.66-per-cent budget hike in 2024 and an additional 6.92-per-cent increase in 2025.
The Oct. 30 meeting, which Sudbury.com did attend, was a continuation of these budget deliberations. Unlike other GSPS board meetings, which are held on an upper floor within GSPS headquarters, the Oct. 30 meeting was held at city hall.
“I certainly commend you, chief, in terms of offering us some very practical considerations today to be able to reduce the number, because I think 10.66 is a very large number, and ... there is only one taxpayer,” member Gerry Lougheed said during the Oct. 30 meeting, in what was perhaps one of the most critical comments from a board member that night, outside of expressing concerns regarding potential cuts to the proposed budgets.
“I do have to commend your police service on being very progressive and proactive and forward-thinking,” member Krista Fortier said, before asking a question about the implications of scaling back their proposed training budget.
“Let me commend staff for doing some great work over the last number of weeks in preparing this and walking us through it,” member Shawn Poland said before asking a follow-up question about training.
“I know there’s a lot of work here,” Mayor Paul Lefebvre said, reiterating his understanding that Pedersen indicated the 10.66-per-cent budget increase “is basically what you feel is needed to continue the great work from GSPS.”
At the close of the meeting, Lougheed said that although certain cuts were sought to pare the budget down to something the public would better accept, he would be receptive to whatever alternative ideas staff might come up with to lower the budget increases.
“I think something we’re missing in this whole discussion today is we have an excellent police service,” Lougheed said, adding that they’re “one of the best police services in Ontario, and we don’t want to deteriorate the quality of policing. Our front-line guys do a fabulous job and we’re all very proud of them, so we’ve got to make the numbers match the quality without being wasteful.”
Through such measures as delaying the hiring of certain additional staff members by a few months, building less wiggle room into finances and cutting back on long-term infrastructure savings, the board ended up whittling budget increases down to an 8.09-per-cent jump in 2024 and a 6.2-per-cent hike in 2025, which they unanimously approved during the following meeting on Nov. 1.
Greater Sudbury city council unanimously greenlit the 2024-25 police budget on Dec. 12.
The Greater Sudbury Police Board consists of five members, including two city council appointees (chair/Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer and Mayor Paul Lefebvre), one member elected by city council (Gerry Lougheed) and two provincial appointees (Krista Fortier and Shawn Poland).
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
